Last night's episode did not do much for me either. I was very tired when I started watching it on DVR, so its not really the shows fault, but I actually fell asleep and had to rewind it. Its was mostly a setdown in quality from the previous one which was fantastic.

I have a question. Did they film all the island stuff ahead of time, before they started filming the present day stuff? I'd have to guess yes, since it looks like it was all filmed at one time and Oliver seems to have his real hair longer, and not wearing a wig or something. Its just something i've been thinking about recently.

The last episode wasn't great, but it was decent. I'm still enjoying Arrow a lot. I'm a bit dissapointed that Huntress is a definately crazy person with no real hope of redemtion at this point (seeing as she's killed a lot of innocent people along with the guolty ones) but its not that big a deal. I'm wondering where the stuff with Laurel's mother and her theory is going to go.

I have posted about the question of when the island stuff island stuff is filmed too. I think you are right. I think its like a film shot. Where they do it all in one location regardless of when it takes place in the season. I am sure that location is permanently setup so it can be revisted when needed to. So maybe they do a few episodes at a time. This weeks was a perfect example, the flashbacks did not have a direct connection to the main plot. Its also possible that scenes planned for a specific episode are cut for time and are used later.

Its likely one of the reasons Manu Bennett is becoming a regular next season is so there are no restrictions on how often Slade Wilson appears on the island.

I did not think this weeks episode was bad, it was just not as focused as others. Just a lot of hold over plot lines from previous episodes with no real connection.

I like that it appears Helena will not be redeemed. She is a good lesson for Oliver not to go that same route himself. Plus there are lot of potential partners for Oliver being setup. Roy Harper obviously and perhaps Laurel.

I think Detective Lance will be leaving. His character is really one note. He wants to capture "the Hood" and he blames Oliver for his daughter's death. Not much to him than that. Made worse by the fact that the actor seems to have one facial expression!!!!

I have a question. Did they film all the island stuff ahead of time, before they started filming the present day stuff? I'd have to guess yes, since it looks like it was all filmed at one time and Oliver seems to have his real hair longer, and not wearing a wig or something. Its just something i've been thinking about recently.

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I'm pretty sure they film the island scenes second unit as the series proceeds. They may double up filming island segments for convenience but there's no way they could film all of the island scenes for 22 episodes in one giant lump.

As for Oliver's "hair", his wig for the flashbacks is one of the worst I've ever seen in a professional TV production. The Vancouver humidity is doing it no favors, as well. Every time Ollie pulls off one of those ski masks, I expect the wig to come with it.

Yeah, I have a feeling they'd pretty much have to be filming the island stuff alongside the present day stuff. They can do some pretty impressive stuff with make up these days. I could see them filming all of the island stuff for a single episode all at once, but not the whole season.

Not the whole season but I think they have to do more than one at a time. Shooting on location costs a lot of money. Plus there is the scheduling issues with the guest stars. Also Amell is in too many scenes in both present and flashback scenes for both to be shot second unit at the same time.

Who knows for sure though. Its going to be fascinating to learn on the DVDs how they planned all that. Not just in the filming but writing too.

Yeah, I couldn't help but laugh at the comment about arriving in Central City in a flash.
I thought this was a good episode. We got some good character stuff for Roy, and they already tied up the "is Sarah alive?" stuff in a satisfactory manner without dragging it out forever.

The Central City "back in a flash" line made me groan. Somewhat true of the whole episode, really. It wasn't one of Arrow's best. Last week's Entertainment Weekly had an article about how the show is getting better, I hope that this week is an aberration.

Felt like we were a bit more on track this week. The development with Tommy and his Father at the end was good and all the island stuff this week was very good as well. Ollie really needs a more secure location for his stuff.